Purdue races past Indiana State in second half in exhibition

Purdue rode two blistering shooting runs and an important mid-game lesson to a 94-72 exhibition win over Indiana State Saturday in its exhibition game to benefit hurricane relief efforts.

Dakota Mathias went off in the first half, making his first five shots for a quick 13 points, helping Purdue build a dozen-point lead that didn't endure.

It was a three-point game at halftime.

"It happens to a lot of teams, what happened to us in the first half: You get away from what got you a lead," said Coach Matt Painter, who admitted he'd have coached the end of the first half differently had this game counted.

But Carsen Edwards delivered a scoring outburst of his own after halftime, scoring 11 during a 15-1 Purdue run that turned the game on its side and vaulted the Boilermakers to a lead that peaked at 25 in the final minutes.

"We got a strong of stops, three or four stops in a row," Edwards said. "That's what we came out of the huddle before the second half talking about, 'If we get stops, I believe we'll get a run.' When we got the stops, our defense turned into offense."

That it did, but it was also one of those signature bursts for the sophomore guard, who didn't look in the second half like a player who struggled in the first.

First, Edwards scored on a pretty eurostep in transition, looking off a shooter in the corner as he slashed to the rim. Then, after a Mathias steal, Edwards broke out the euro again, this time for an and-one.

Next, he buried a quick three from the corner. After an ISU free throw, he used a Matt Haarms screen to free himself for another triple, giving Purdue a 60-43 lead less than five-and-a-half minutes into the half.

That sealed it, assuring the Boilermakers a decided win in a game in which things didn't all go as planned.

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Purdue committed first-half turnovers, allowed eight offensive rebounds — an acute concern for the Boilermakers — and was just 4-of-10 at the foul line before halftime, 1-of-5 in the final three-and-a-half minutes or so, opening the door for the Sycamores to draw closer. Indiana State closed the half on an 11-3 run.

"It didn't really go our way offensively, even though we ended up scoring a lot of points," Painter said. "We had some opportunities we didn't make the most of. You're going to have games like that. You have to be able to keep your frustration level to a minimum and still be able to make plays and still be able to stop people on the defensive end."

That's what Purdue did in the second half.

Indiana State went seven consecutive possessions without a point during Purdue's game-deciding run.

"At halftime, we talked about defensive intensity and getting into them a little bit," Mathias said. "We strung together a couple stops and that was huge for us on that run."